A Sting in the Tale: A Collection of Short Stories

1

Jade Velasquez was in the kitchen of her two storey home; a cigarette hanging from her mouth and a cup of coffee in her hand. She was sitting at the kitchen table, browsing through old family photos with tears streaming down her face. She was only thirty-five yet, looking at these pictures she felt older. A feeling brought about by the photographs; old family photos that seemed a lifetime ago. In some cases they were; pictures with her son Aidan, now eight but in the picture much younger, and her ex-husband — all of them seemingly enjoying a family day out.

Without looking back at the pictures, Jade struggled to remember the good times with her ex. They had been happy at some time, she knew that, or else they wouldn’t have got married and had a child together but those feelings had definitely passed. Now he was just someone she saw once in a while when he swung by to pick Aidan up. Fleeting visits that were just about long enough to be civil to each other without relapsing into their old argumentative ways. There had definitely been a time when she had loved the man but that time had long since gone. Now her love was reserved for another; Esslee. They had been together for five years now and she knew he’d always be there for her. Her rock. Her biggest supporter. The one man she could count on when times got tough. Times like now.

On the stove behind her, dinner bubbled away simmering gently. She was holding off from serving it for as long as possible. Esslee hadn’t got in from work yet and she didn’t want to start without him. She couldn’t wait much longer though. She knew Aidan was hungry and — even if he hadn’t been — it was nearing his bedtime.

Wiping the tears from her cheeks with one hand and stubbing the cigarette out with the other, Jade stood up and walked over to the kitchen window. She looked out into the dreary world beyond. Grey clouds blanketing the sky. Just another miserable day here in Port Orchard. Nothing ever changes.

She walked from the kitchen to the living room. The television was on. Some random Bruce Willis film playing quietly — an audience of one as Aidan sat watching the action on the screen yet seemingly not really noticing it. He too had tears in his eyes — some of which had escaped and started rolling down his cheeks.

“Is the film good?” Jade asked. Films weren’t really her thing. Given half a choice, she was the sort of person who preferred to sit down with a good book; preferably a horror, or a psychological thriller. Aidan shrugged. “It looks good.” Although, he didn’t verbally respond. Jade glanced into the corner of the room. Her two basenji dogs — Marvin and Hitch — were sound asleep on the far couch. Thank God for that. When she and Aidan had first got home, they had gone berserk.

Basenji dogs are one of the only breeds of dog that cannot bark but it did not stop them from making a God-awful howling noise if they were excited by something, which is exactly what they had done when Jade walked through the door. She didn’t know what the hell was wrong with them but at least they had settled now.

“How was school today?” she asked Aidan. He didn’t answer. She sighed and walked across the room to where he was sitting. She knew he was upset but he couldn’t stay upset all night long. It wasn’t good for him. “You know you can talk to me if you need to, don’t you?” she said. It had been a traumatic day for the pair of them. She understood that he might not have been ready to talk about it but she wanted him to know that — when he was ready — she would be there for him.

“Leave me alone,” he mumbled without taking his eyes from the screen before him.

“Your father and I only want what is best for you.”

“I said leave me alone,” he said, slightly louder this time but still not shouting.

As someone who had suffered from depression since she was sixteen years old, it was fair to say that sometimes she could be a little hard to live with. Her moods would often fluctuate. One minute they would be up and the next, they’d be down. At one point her depression had been so bad she had been rushed to the emergency room after self-harming. Most people would be embarrassed about it but she wasn’t. When asked, she often replied with the quote, what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger. More recently, though, her moods had been better controlled with the help of medication. But when they did slip… they did so with devastating results. It was because of her moods, though, that she found herself more tolerant of others. At least, more tolerant of others when she herself wasn’t suffering from a bad day. Aidan rarely snapped at his mother though and, now that he had, Jade took the hint that he wanted some distance.

She stood up and walked back to the living room doorway. She sighed heavily and turned back to her son, “I am going to dish up dinner soon…” she said. “I was just waiting to see if Esslee was going to get home in time to enjoy it with us,” she finished.

“I’m not hungry,” he bit.

On screen — Bruce Willis blew another bad guy away with a snappy one-liner. Jade sighed again as another tear slipped down her cheek. She turned away and walked from the room, leaving her son to the film.

Back in the kitchen and dinner was still bubbling away. A chilli concoction that was in need of a stir. She picked up the wooden spatula from the side and stirred it — stopping the edges from congealing on the side of the pan as would usually happen when it started to burn.

Her cell-phone was buzzing on the side — Esslee’s picture on the display. She glanced at it but did not answer. Instead she left it ring off and go through to voicemail. The on-screen display showed twenty-five missed calls. Another message on the screen popped up; there were now six voicemails waiting for her to listen to. A second later and a text popped up on screen asking Jade to call him. All were ignored as she continued stirring the dinner. She figured that — whatever he wanted — he could say it to her face when he came home for dinner.

She scooped some of the chilli out using the spatula and gave it a taste. It was good. Spicy but not too spicy. Aidan didn’t like it when it was too spicy and he would often leave it. After the day he had had, she wanted it to be perfect. It wasn’t his favourite meal but it was definitely a contender for being in the top ten and she hoped it might perk him up a little. She set the spatula down and glanced back out of the window. Still no sign of Esslee’s car. Where the hell was he? Dinner would be ruined at this rate.

2

Aidan was sitting at the dining room table. A cup of water on a mat before him and a bowl of chilli — with some bread on the side — next to that. His cutlery was next to the bowl, untouched.

Jade walked into the room with her own bowl and drink. She took a seat opposite Aidan and realised he hadn’t eaten anything, “You didn’t have to wait for me,” she said. “Tuck in before it gets cold. I think we have waited long enough for this now, don’t you?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Don’t be silly. You haven’t eaten all day. You must be starving.”

“I don’t want it,” he said.

Jade put her own cutlery down and looked at her disobedient son. She wanted to yell at him to do as he was told. She wanted to snap that — if he didn’t eat — she would tan his backside. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, repressing the hostile feelings once more. She opened her eyes again and forced a smile, ever conscious that the damned black dog was snapping at her heels.

“You must eat something,” she told him.

Aidan sensed her growing frustration and lifted the spoon from the table. He buried it into the bowl of chilli and then — slowly — pulled it back out with the smallest amount of food on it. Jade didn’t move. She kept her eyes fixed upon her son until he shovelled what was on the spoon, into his mouth. He swallowed without chewing — not that that was an issue considering the pathetic amount he had tried.

“There. Isn’t that better? Now eat the rest up like a good boy,” she said.

“I don’t want it,” he said.

“Yes you do. It’s chilli. It’s your favourite.”

“No it’s not!”

“Oh? Then — tell me — what is your favourite?”

“Nuggets.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You hate nuggets.”

“No I don’t,” Aidan whined.

They both fell silent. He was staring at his bowl — too afraid to look her in the eye — and she was staring directly at him; her own eyes burning to the back of his skull. He was just being difficult. She knew he was. He was testing her. This often happened when he came back from his father’s house. He’d go liking one thing and then come home hating it and liking another. Some of the time, Jade was left wondering whether his father had put him up to it and — that actually — the opinion wasn’t his own after all. A pathetic way of trying to get one up on her.

“Well it is one of your favourites,” Jade said eventually. She shovelled more into her own mouth but kept her eyes fixed on her son. She hated it when he went to stay with his dad for more than a couple of days. Due to it being the school holidays, he had spent the last week with him. She should have expected trouble when his father dropped him back off but — after the events of today — she had let her guard down. She paused a moment to consider whether he was playing up because of the day’s events or whether it was because he had been with dad. A tough call — it could have been either.

“I don’t like it!” he shouted.

Jade swallowed her mouthful down and stared at her son. He didn’t usually shout out like this. This wasn’t him. He was her pride and joy and her biggest victory in life was teaching him empathy for all people and animals. This was his father’s doing. He must have said something to upset him, or to turn him against Jade. But what could that have been? They might not have loved each other — Jade and her ex — but, most of the time, they still managed to be amicable.

“You’re being ridiculous!” she snapped suddenly. “What has gotten into you?”

Before Aidan could answer, they both heard the sound of a key turning in the front door lock. Esslee was home.

“You wait right here and carry on eating your dinner,” Jade said. She got up and walked from the room. Aidan sat there, listening… Shaking.

“Why was the door locked?” Esslee asked.

Jade didn’t answer, “Where have you been? We waited as long as we could for dinner. We’ve had to start.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I did try calling you to let you know I was running late.”

“Where were you?”

“I just got held up at work.” There was a slight pause. “What is for dinner?”

“We’re having chilli,” Jade said.

“Nice. Hang on. Let me just get my coat off.”

“I’ll fetch you a bowl if you want to go straight through.”

Footsteps in the halfway. One set passed right by and the other set came into the room. Aidan looked over his shoulder to see who it was. It was Esslee.

Esslee smiled at Aidan, “Hello,” he said.

Aidan didn’t smile back. Nor did he take his eyes off Esslee as he walked over to the table and took a seat next to him. There was a slight pause as the man and boy looked at each other. Esslee glanced over the boy’s shoulder, back towards the door, and then looked back down to the boy in front of him.

“Listen, I’m going to get you out of here. Okay? But for now you just have to play along. Okay?” Esslee said.

The boy — not Aidan — nodded and started to cry.

“Don’t cry. It’s okay. Help is coming. I promise.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Jade asked as she came back into the room — a bowl of chilli in her hand for Esslee, along with some cutlery.

“Silly bugger bit his tongue,” Esslee said with a subtle wink to the boy.

3

Jade was watching the young child spoon his chilli from one side of the bowl to the other, without actually eating any. Esslee could see why she had brought him home. He did look like her son. They both had fair skin and brown hair and they both had similar eyes too — large and brown, just like Jade’s.

Esslee had known that something like this was going to happen. It had been brewing for a couple of weeks. First her own son went missing from the park area one day and then — as less and less information had come from the authorities looking into his disappearance — more and more of her meds had been forgotten.

The packets — tucked away in the medicine cabinet in the upstairs bathroom — had days of the week clearly labeled on them. The manufacturers knew it was important not to miss a dose so designed it in such a way as to help people who needed them. This packaging also made it very simple for loved ones, such as Esslee, to know when their partners weren’t taking what they were supposed to. Gradually — on a day to day basis — he had watched a decline in Jade’s mental state.

Even so — despite sensing something was brewing — he hadn’t expected this.

Not kidnapping.

“How was work today then?” Esslee asked Jade in an attempt to turn the attention away from the stranger sitting there, playing with his food — too afraid to eat it.

By day, when not kidnapping children who possessed a passing resemblance to her missing son, Jade worked long hours in the veterinary field as a technician (nurse) for small animals such as dogs and cats. Before all of this — her breakdown and her missing son — she had loved her job although she often saw things which broke her heart. Especially when it involved the horrific things humans could do to animals which then could not be saved. Those were the hard days but — the flip side of the coin — the days when their misfortune could be turned around and they could be saved… Well… Those were the days in which you would get a rewarding feeling not found in many other jobs.

“We saved a cat today,” Jade replied with a smile. “At first it looked as though it was going to be touch and go but then — just like that — the antibiotics started to work. We’re keeping it in the clinic over the weekend but, on Monday, all being well we’re phoning the owners to come and collect it.” She took a sip from her water.

“That’s great,” Esslee said. He turned to the boy, “Isn’t that great?”

The boy nodded. Esslee’s words playing over and over again in his head, just play along.

“And how was your day? Do anything interesting?” Esslee asked the boy.

The boy hesitated a moment, “I went to the park with some friends,” he said — his voice shaking; full of fear.

“The park? Those were the days — lazy days playing on the swings with my friends. Oh to turn back the clock once in a while,” Esslee laughed. He turned to Jade, “You ever wish you could turn the clock back?” he asked. A sly way of asking whether she wished she could go back to earlier in the day — before she had snatched the boy from the park. She looked at him blankly with vacant eyes. It was in this look that he knew it was too late. What little sanity had remained — after her son had disappeared — was now but a shadow.

Her answer, “Why would I want to do that?” was the icing on the cake.

Esslee pushed regardless, “Sometimes I get the urge to wind the clock back so I can redo things, you know?”

Jade shrugged, “I don’t. I’ve got my boy. I’ve got my man. What more could I want?”

Esslee swallowed a mouthful of food and tried to hide the guilt in his face. She didn’t have her man and she didn’t have her son. Little did she know but the authorities were waiting outside. Esslee had managed to talk them into letting him go into the house first to try and get the boy out, without causing a scene. Realising he hadn’t been involved with the kidnapping — and that it was a case of a broken parent doing something foolish — they let him in; albeit on a strict timeframe. If he wasn’t out within ten minutes, they’d be going in. Whether he managed to get the boy out, or they came crashing in — he knew the amount of trouble Jade was in. It didn’t matter that she’d had a breakdown. She would be doing time for this. The only question was whether it would be in a secure unit or whether it would be in a normal prison. He hated the idea of it but… He couldn’t think of it now. Now he just needed to get that boy out of there and out of harm’s way. He didn’t believe Jade had it in her to hurt him but, then, he didn’t think she had it in her to kidnap someone either and he had obviously been wrong about that.

He glanced at the clock hanging from the wall. Time was running out.

“Why do you keep looking at the time?” Jade asked. Heavy suspicion in her tone.

“I was just curious as to what the time was,” he said with a smile. “Just wondered if we had time to have a quick kick about, with the ball, before bedtime,” he turned to the boy and smiled at him too. “You fancy that?”

The boy nodded enthusiastically.

Esslee nodded down towards his bowl of chilli, “You finished?”

“Yes.”

“You haven’t finished yours,” Jade pointed out. She was right. Esslee had taken a couple of spoonfuls in total and had hardly made a dent in his dinner.

“I don’t get to spend time with Aidan much anymore,” he said, thinking on his feet. “I can reheat it when he goes to bed.”

“Well he can’t leave the table yet,” she said. “I have ice-cream for pudding.”

“That’s cool. We can go outside for a bit while you dish up.”

“Don’t be stupid, it will take me two seconds.”

Jade stood up and started clearing the bowls — starting with her own bowl and the boy’s. She took them out first.

“I’m scared,” the boy admitted to Esslee.

“She’s harmless. I promise. She’s just a bit confused at the moment. Anyway you have nothing to worry about, the police are waiting right outside. Okay?”

The boy nodded. His eyes welled up.

“Don’t cry,” Esslee told him, “everything will be fine you just need to be strong for a little while longer. In fact, wait here…” He picked his own bowl up and carried it through to the kitchen.

4

Jade was standing by the window. Her eyes were fixed on the glass, looking beyond, whilst her hand was digging out chunks of raspberry ripple ice-cream and dropping them into one of the three bowls she had lined up on the counter.

Esslee walked in and put his bowl on the side.

“I would have brought it out,” Jade told him.

“I know. I thought I would save you the hassle.” He tried to change the subject again, desperate to get the boy outside before the police came in. “Listen — he isn’t hungry at the moment. I think he is feeling a little under the weather. I’m going to take him outside and have a kick about in the garden for ten minutes or so. Fresh air might do him some good.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jade said. “Look — it’s drizzling out there and I don’t know where his rain-coat is.”

Esslee looked out into the garden. His eyes were drawn to the bushes surrounding the perimeter. More particularly, the uniformed men hiding in them — waiting, on the off chance that Jade came out of the kitchen door and tried to make a run for it.

“It’s not that bad out there. Come on, I think it will do him some good. You can come out too, if you want, you can be the goalie…”

Jade finished putting ice-cream into the final bowl and returned the tub to the freezer. She turned to Esslee, “Look — I don’t want him going outside. It’s late. It’s nearing his bedtime and he still has to have his dessert.”

“He isn’t hungry!”

“I don’t care! He hardly touched his chilli. He needs to eat something before bed and — the way I see it — ice-cream is better than nothing. Besides, what boy doesn’t want ice-cream whenever the chance comes up?”

Time was nearly up.

“He isn’t your boy!” Esslee snapped. He didn’t know what else to do. He knew it would be bad if the police rushed the house. In her current mental state, Jade was completely unpredictable. If he could have at least got the boy outside it would have got him out of harm’s way. If she followed, even better, there would have been less opportunity for her to hurt herself too. But clearly he wasn’t going to be able to achieve either.

“He is my boy!” she insisted. “He’s not your boy!” A truth even if it had been the real Aidan sitting in the other room. She continued, “And I don’t like the way you’re trying to tell me how to raise him.

Esslee noticed the pictures on the table and started shifting through them — looking for a more recent one. When he found one taken less than a year ago, he waved it under Jade’s face, “Look — this is your boy! Look! They’re different! They boy in there — he is not your son!”

“He is!”

“They look different!”

Jade grabbed an even earlier picture than the one Esslee had picked up and thrust it in his face, “And he looks different here too. It’s amazing how quickly they grow up.”

“Your boy is missing!” he continued, becoming more and more frustrated. Time must have been up now. They must be out there, organising how best to breach the property. It wouldn’t be long now. He figured he didn’t have anything to lose by reminding her what had happened to her own son. “You took him to the park,” he said. “Remember?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“You took him to the park. There was an ice-cream van. You went to get one for the pair of you. You left him in the park…”

“He’s in the next room!” Jade insisted.

“You got the ice-creams and walked them back to where you had left him. By the time you got there — he was gone. Is any of this ringing any bells? Please tell me you remember this.”

“I do remember!” she said. Esslee momentarily felt relief. That is, until she continued, “We had two ice-creams with a flake each. He had sprinkles on his with some strawberry sauce and I had mine plain. We ate them by the pond and then, when we had finished, we came home! I don’t know what has gotten into you,” she finished.

Esslee wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. See if he could shake some sense into her before it was too late. Too late? What was he thinking? It was already too late for her. Now it was all about damage control. If he got the boy out of the house with minimum fuss, the law might be more lenient on Jade and she might get the help she needed. If they had to come in, and things got ugly, she’d only be making it worse for herself.

“You were asking around. The other parents saw him run off into the woods!” Esslee continued pushing her, hoping that she would start to remember. “He was excited about something but no one could see what. He ran in and he didn’t come back. Does any of this ring a bell?” He paused a moment. Jade was looking at him blankly. “We scoured those woods with some officers and some other volunteers. All of us lined up until late at night — torches in hand. Calling his name.” He sighed. He could tell by the look on her face that he wasn’t getting through to her. She was too far gone.

She smiled and shook her head, “You’re being strange. He’s in the living room. Now — come on — before the ice-cream melts. Grab a bowl.”

Jade collected two bowls and walked through to the living room. Esslee just stood there a moment looking out of the window, shaking his head — hoping that someone could see his gesture and know that it was no good. If they wanted her, and the boy, they would have to come in.

“What are you doing?” Jade’s voice came through from the hallway.

Esslee spun around to see her. She wasn’t talking to him. Her back was to him. He walked over to her side and noticed the boy was by the front door.

“I thought we were going to play outside for a bit?” he said — his voice audibly trembling.

“We are, it’s fine.” Esslee butted in.

“No!” Jade snapped. She turned to Esslee, “No! I told you! We’re going to go and eat ice-cream. I’ve prepared it now.”

“He wants to go outside. I promised him. Come on… Don’t make me look like the bad guy here!”

“I said no!” Jade shouted. The boy flinched at the abruptness of her voice and started to cry.

“Come on, Jade, look at him…” Esslee paused a moment, waiting for Jade to face the boy who wasn’t her son. “LOOK AT HIM!” he shouted. Jade slowly turned and faced the boy. “He isn’t your boy. He needs to go outside because there are people waiting for him out there… Come on, don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

“What do you mean?” Jade started to panic. “Who is out there? Who wants to take my boy away?”

“He isn’t your boy!” Esslee said again — and he would keep saying it, if need be, until he was blue in the face. “The police. The police are out there and they’re here to take him home.”

“You’re wrong.”

“I’m not.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’ve already been talking to them,” Esslee confessed.

5

The boy was still standing by the door crying. He felt as though he was so close to freedom and yet so far. The single thought dancing through his head, wondering whether he’d be able to get out of there before she got to him.

“You’re lying,” Jade accused Esslee. “Why are you doing this?”

“You know why. He isn’t your boy. You act like he is but — deep down — you know. I can see it in your eyes.” Jade’s eyes were indeed red from where she’d been crying earlier. Had everything been okay — in her head — then she wouldn’t have wept. Everything would have been fine and she would have been smiling and full of energy and happiness. He could tell though, just from her body language, that she wasn’t fine. She wouldn’t admit the boy wasn’t Aidan but — deep down — she knew it to be true.

“You’re lying!” she snapped — her voice rising once more.

“Then open the door. Let him go outside and kick the ball around. If I am lying — there won’t be anyone out there.”

Jade looked at the door and then down to the bowls of ice-cream. She started to cry. Esslee was getting through to her. She did know the truth. She did know it wasn’t her boy standing there, also crying albeit for a different reason. She was sad, he was scared.

“We’re going to have ice-cream.”

“If he doesn’t go out now, they’re going to come in…” Esslee warned her. “He needs to leave the house otherwise they might think he is in danger and act accordingly. We need to do this the right way. I promise you, whatever happens, I will stand by you just as I have for everything else we have encountered during the last five years. But — for me to do that — you need to help yourself.”

“Well where is my boy?” she asked. A quiet voice.

“I don’t know. I wish I did but I don’t. We’re still looking for him. We will find him, I promise.”

Jade burst into floods of tears. Esslee approached her and put his arms around her. He turned to the boy and nodded for him to leave. The boy mouthed thank you and opened the door. Voices immediately started to call out to him. His name was Jack. They told him to hurry over to the officers. Some told him not to look back and others were reassuring him that everything was going to be okay. Meanwhile, another group of officers started to advance towards the house.

Esslee stood there, watching them coming. He too had tears streaming down his face as his mind started playing through what would happen next. They’d come in, they’d pull the two of them apart and they’d take her and arrest her, reading her rights. She’d be upset, of course she would, and she’d be screaming — both for her loss of freedom and her missing son. Esslee just hoped — under the circumstances — that the judge would be lenient on her. She doesn’t need to go to prison. She doesn’t need to be locked away like a wild animal. She just needs help. But that in itself was a problem; despite advances in medicines and science — people still didn’t really understand mental health and, a lot of the time, the people who needed proper help fell by the wayside and ended up being treated just the same as the real monsters of the world. Esslee knew for a fact that the boy’s parents would be pushing for a prison sentence. They wouldn’t want this woman on the streets; this crazy bitch who had snatched their son.

Jade pulled away from Esslee and wiped the tears away, “He’s dead, isn’t he?” She was referring to Aidan. His death was something she had feared since he went missing. There was no proof he was dead, though. The police had literally found no trace of him. He had simply disappeared. But the longer he was missing, the less chance he was going to be coming home again. They both knew this. It was obvious when you looked at crimes similar to this. The longer the person missing, the more chance that he or she was dead. They’d no longer be looking for a person but rather a body instead. Jade was still weeping as Esslee tried to calm her down. “He’s dead, isn’t he?” she said again.

“You don’t know that,” he said. “You can’t think like that. You have to just hope that he is alive — out there, somewhere and that — one day — they’ll not only find him but bring him home too.” It was horrible to think so negatively but Esslee didn’t believe anything that he was saying. Aidan might not have been his child but that didn’t make the thought of him dead any easier. It still hurt him to think like that. But he was a realist and couldn’t help it.

“Ms. Velasquez?” an officer had stepped into the building.

She looked up and saw him; instant panic on her face.

“It’s okay, honey, but you’re going to have to go with the man for a while. Just talk about what happened today at the park.” Esslee tried to break it to her gently.

“What? No!” She screamed and pushed past him, running up the stairs. Seconds later and a door slammed shut.

“Shit,” Esslee mumbled as three officers rushed after her. He followed.

“What room is this?” one of the officers asked as they crowded around a door.

“That’s the bathroom.”

“Is there anything in there she can hurt herself — or us — with? Do you have any firearms in the house?” the officer continued. His words immediately proving he thought of her as dangerous as opposed to mentally unwell.

“It’s the bathroom for Christ’s sake and — no — we don’t own a gun…”

One of the officers was knocking on the door, asking for her to open it. He didn’t sound kind. He sounded authoritative. This was not a man who was messing around but rather one who sounded as though he often got what he wanted.

“She’s under a lot of pressure at the moment,” Esslee explained. He started to tell them about their own missing child again — a story the officers had heard already — but no one was listening. That much was very obvious. All they wanted was to get into the bathroom and take her away before she hurt anyone else.

They all stopped at the sound of something smashing on the other side of the door. Esslee immediately pushed past the officers and started banging on the door, “Jade? Jade? What are you doing? Talk to me! Honey?!” She didn’t answer though. He could just hear her crying.

One of the officers — a large man — pulled Esslee out of the way. His colleague — without hesitation — kicked the door as hard as he could. The wood splintered around the lock and the door swung open. Esslee could see Jade standing there with bloodied hands. The mirror on the medicine cabinet was broken, shattered into pieces — some big and some small. One of the bigger pieces was in Jade’s hand. Tears still streaming down her face. The officers didn’t take the sight as one of a woman needing help but instead looked upon it as a woman about to threaten them. They pulled their weapons and started shouting for her to drop the glass shard. She was not listening though. She just was standing there, shaking her head and sobbing uncontrollably.

“I want to see my son,” she screamed suddenly. She raised the glass shard and plunged it into the side of her neck. The officers screamed for her to stop and lowered their weapons — rushing forward, finally seeing that she was a woman needing help. Esslee screamed for her to stop too but she didn’t. Before the first officer managed to get to her she’d dragged the glass across her neck, a jettison of blood pouring from the slit she’d cut. She fell into the first officer’s arms, gagging and choking, as the glass shard fell to the floor — shattering into many tiny pieces.

The third officer held Esslee back as the other two tried to save the poor woman’s life. One man held her throat, trying to stem the flow of blood but the artery was severed. There was no stopping it and all they could do was watch as Jade slipped away from them. Her final sight — not one of her son welcoming her — but one of panicked and upset faces desperate for her to hold on.

And so…

Within the week — when all preparations had been made — there was a funeral service. Not many people attended as most were too upset that they hadn’t been able to help her. They hadn’t seen what was coming on the horizon — that bastard black dog that had plagued Jade for her whole life and, at various points, tried to make her do stupid things had finally beaten her — driving her crazy in the process.

That day two caskets were buried in the local cemetery. In one of the caskets was the body of Jade — fixed up as best as possible by the undertakers running the service. The second casket was empty with the exception of Aidan’s favourite teddy bear and a small colour photograph of him and his mother sharing happier times; both of them smiling, both of them loving life.

Esslee watched as the caskets were lowered into the earth. He wiped a tear from his eye and hoped that — if Aidan was up there somewhere — they’d find each other.

T H E E N D